The Lindbergh Baby
As All Die
Life Toward Twilight
Thomas Nöla et son Orchestre
The Ancient and the Transmundane
Saturday, April 21st, 2007
Held at The Eagles Club
Happening only days after a surprise weather pattern swept the nation bringing flooding and damage to the east coast in what was termed a Nor'easter storm condition, the Gods surely graced this festival with perfect weather. Though the rite of spring hadn't quite arrived yet as there was no budding on the plethora of trees in this fine New England state, one couldn't have asked for a more perfect climate for the weekend.
On the night before the event, Friday, April 20, all of the participating performers with the exception of The Lindbergh Baby performed on a live radio program on WRIU at the University of Rhode Island to help publicize the festival. The program, Prime Audio Soup, was webcast and Robert and Nicholas have heard from friends in both the States and in Europe that were able to listen to the program. Changes performed nine songs ending at a little after midnight. It was a great time for the performers in the various groups to get acquainted before the day of the show.
On Saturday the performers traveled back to Massachusetts leaving but little time to catch their collective breaths before heading to the venue to set up their equipment. Robert and Nicholas rode to Rhode Island and back with Ryan of The Ancient and the Transmundane and the organizer of this event and it was great to get acquainted with this fine gentleman during their travels.
Arriving at the venue of the Eagle's Club, it was like a reunion party for Robert and Nicholas. The list is endless of the friends who were there from the eastern states and the great new acquaintances they met.
Changes' performance started with a new twist. Immediately following the fine performance of The Lindbergh Baby, Robert opened Changes' set with an oratorial rendition of the apocalyptic "...And Finally" (from the Changes/Andrew King split) complete with the musical background track. Following this powerful and dramatic performance, Changes immediately broke into the song "Mahabharata of the Soul". Changes then introduced themselves and dedicated their performance that night to a celebration of the life of their dear friend, James Elenidis, who passed away in February at the young age of thirty-two years.
James Elenidis with Jane Elizabeth in 2006
Changes premiered two songs on this night, "Chasing the Breath of the Dragon" and as one of the encore songs, "Emily". "Emily" is a song written about Emily Dickinson and it seemed very fitting to perform this one as the town of Northampton is within a "sonnets-throw" (Robert's fine term) of the town of Amherst where Emily, "The Belle of Amherst", lived.
They were joined early in their set on stage by dear Jane Elizabeth of TESCO US who gave a fine vocal accompaniment on the song "Sweet Eve". Later in the set they were joined by Michael Moynihan for his great vocalizations on both "Waiting For the Fall" and "Twilight". Michael and Annabel Lee were there performing with the The Lindbergh Baby.
Lyndsey, the man at the controls of the soundboard, did an excellent job of enhancing the nuances and "personalities" of each of the performing groups. He truly knew the hall and the equipment there and did stellar work!
The entire evening was a truly grand event!
When traveling from Lisbon, Portugal to Brussels, Belgium on November 13, 2005, Changes had a phenomenally coincidental occurance with the number thirteen (MATR Tour, Belgium). They had a similar type of occurance in Massachusetts.
Upon arriving at their motel near Springfield, MA they were given Room 124. This, of course, had no significance at the time. The following day when checking into the motel in Rhode Island where they were to stay after the completion of the radio program, they were given Room 142. They immediately noticed that this was an anagram of their room number from the day before. Upon returning to their original motel near Springfield on Saturday they were given Room 116 thus apparently ending the magical sequence of coincidences? Following the festival they arrived at their motel room at about 2:00 a.m. and Nicholas tried his card key in the door of Room 116 and it wouldn't open. Robert also tried his own to no avail. Several other people tried to open the latch with either of the keys all resulting in failure. Since there would be no way to open the jammed electronic door until about 9:00 later that morning, the motel found another room for Changes. The number of their new room was 241! As Ryan said, it seemed an unseen force wanted Robert and Nicholas to stay in a room containing the numbers 1, 2 and 4! Eerie as it seemed, there didn't seem to be any other significance to the number until Nicholas realized while flying home that the festival had been held on April 21st, otherwise known as 4/21! Pretty spooky!
[All color photographs below by Jane Elizabeth]
[All Black and white photographs by Jared Trottier. His website: Colliding Light]
The host of the festival, Ryan Wynns